Is this the year Adam Sandler reaches his Oscar potential?
It shouldn’t be such a surprise that Sandler, 53, is in the awards conversation with “Uncut Gems,” his intense new drama that hits select theaters Friday in New York and Los Angeles. In fact, while earning a half dozen Razzie Awards for his schlockier comedies, Sandler also has been diversifying his resume for years, taking dramatic swings and showing more vulnerability with acclaimed filmmakers at the helm.
Now with awards season just around the corner, Sandler is buoyed by a Rotten Tomatoes score of 96% for “Uncut Gems,” in which he’s bowled over critics with his portrayal of Howard Ratner, a New York diamond dealer and gambling addict on the run from violent creditors. And Sandler has been racking up the critical nods to help get to the Oscars, having been recognized so far by a slew of critics’ groups, including a best actor prize from the National Board of Review (though he was surprisingly snubbed by the Golden Globes).
Let’s take a look back at the roles that got Sandler here.
‘Punch-Drunk Love’ (2002)
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson (“Phantom Thread,” “There Will Be Blood”)
Why it surprised: Sandler tried on his first legit black romantic comedy playing Barry Egan, a small business owner looking for love – only to find himself blackmailed by extortionists after dialing a phone sex line one night. While not a box-office success, Sandler impressed critics, with Entertainment Weekly saying Sandler had “become a tender and arresting presence, like a fusion of Chaplin’s Little Tramp, Woody Allen and Edward Scissorhands.”
‘Spanglish’ (2004)
Director: James L. Brooks (“As Good As It Gets,” “Broadcast News”)
Why it surprised: “Spanglish” was Sandler’s most vulnerable role to date, playing a melancholic, successful chef who is steamrolled by his uptight wife Deborah (Tea Leoni) and falls in love with his family’s undocumented Mexican housekeeper, Flor (Paz Vega), a single mother. The film, which delved into class divisions as Deborah begins showering Flor’s impressionable daughter with gifts and opportunities, earned mixed reviews, but critics nevertheless acknowledged that the dramatic range Sandler showed in “Punch-Drunk” two years prior was no fluke.
‘Funny People’ (2009)
Director: Judd Apatow (“Trainwreck,” “The 40-Year-Old Virgin”)
Why it surprised: Sandler embarked on a relatively meta exercise with “Funny People” (directed by his longtime friend Apatow), playing George Simmons, a wildly successful low-brow comedian who can’t escape his own catch lines and relies on cheap young talent (Seth Rogen) to keep his routine fresh. “Funny People” wasn’t afraid to get unfunny, examining the pained inner lives of those charged with making us laugh while exploring the loneliness, illness and regret. Rolling Stone called the dramedy Sandler’s “best performance ever.”
‘The Meyerowitz Stories’ (2017)
Director: Noah Baumbach (“Marriage Story,” “The Squid and the Whale”)
Why it surprised: Two years ago, “Meyerowitz” started an drumbeat for Sandler to meet Oscar, thanks to his portrayal of Danny Meyerowitz, the less successful son of a famous sculptor (Dustin Hoffman), who finds himself nursing his narcissistic father back to health. “Sandler’s performance is, frankly, a revelation,” wrote the Los Angeles Times. “Almost nothing he has done, not even his fine work in ‘Punch-Drunk Love,’ prepares you for the moving, completely unmannered and heartfelt portrait he creates here.”
The film debuted on Netflix, a streaming debut then considered a hindrance in the awards race. (Consider how “The Irishman” is topping many early awards lists and see how times have so quickly changed.) Sandler got behind the film in a big way, which signaled to insiders that he was quietly putting more of an emphasis on independent projects. Cue …
‘Uncut Gems’ (2019)
Directors: Brothers Joshua and Benjamin Safdie (“Good Time”)
Why it surprised: It’s not simply Sandler’s transformation of fake teeth, crude motormouth dialogue and hold-on-to-your-seat intensity that shocks and awes in “Uncut Gems.” It’s his definitive commitment to a character unlike any he has ever played. Howard is the opposite of mild or dopey. He’s a Jewish street-bred jeweler bouncing around the Diamond District, addicted to the rush of attracting A-list clients and making rash bets while dodging muscle chasing him for funds way past due.
Watching him play a brash New Yorker on the run has blown away even critics who swore they could not be converted. “Billy Madison, Mr. Deeds, Happy Gilmore, Robbie Hart and the guy that sang ‘The Hanukkah Song’ is doing the finest work of his career in ‘Uncut Gems,'” wrote the New York Post. “Pigs have flown, for Sandler is brilliant.”
Could Oscar be next?
Such a leap has been done before. “Art Carney proved that such a turnaround is possible when he went from being TV’s top goofball in ‘The Honeymooners’ to the Oscar-winning star of ‘Harry & Tonto,’ ” notes Tom O’Neil, founder of GoldDerby.com. The awards prognostication site currently gives Sandler 48/1 odds of a best actor Academy Award nomination for “Uncut Gems,” meaning “he’s seriously in the Oscar running,” O’Neil says. “That’s an impressive career resurrection for a guy widely regarded as America’s No. 1 movie goofball.”
